


Penumbra

by Rayj4ck



Series: Press Start to Begin [2]
Category: DuckTales (Cartoon 2017)
Genre: Compared to the last at least, Conduit!Lena, F/F, InFamous AU, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, The updates will also be slow, This is going to be a short one, but also no plan on where this is going, there's college
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-12
Updated: 2020-04-10
Packaged: 2021-02-27 21:00:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22672159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rayj4ck/pseuds/Rayj4ck
Summary: Conduit(n.) - a person or animal with superhuman ability, and control over a specific element
Relationships: Lena (Disney: DuckTales)/Webby Vanderquack
Series: Press Start to Begin [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1592599
Comments: 3
Kudos: 55





	1. Discovery

**Author's Note:**

> An inFamous AU because magic = conduit powers seems almost like it writes itself.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lena can't be around _her_ anymore. She'd rather risk the streets.

Lena swiped a hand over her face, trying to keep the pouring rain out of her eyes as she ran. She could barely see as it was, streetlights the only feeble glow in the night. Thankfully, Lena could sense, but she knew _she_ could too. She didn’t bother knocking on any doors as she ran by, she knew what part of town she was in. These people would see a wet, ragged girl, turn up their noses and slam the door in her face, assuming she was looking for a handout. She would have to figure this out alone.

No sooner had the thought crossed her mind than Lena physically plowed into someone. She was knocked back on her butt, and for a moment her heart jumped in her chest, panicking that she had been caught. Looking up though, all she saw was another girl roughly her age offering her a hand up. 

“You ok?” 

Lena ignored the hand, pulling herself up instead. “Yeah, I’m fine.” She went to move around the girl, she couldn’t waste any time, she couldn’t run forever, she’d need to find a place to hide event-

“Who’re you running from?” That stopped her dead. Turning back to the girl, Lena couldn’t stop her eyes from going wide.

“What? How did you-”

“I know the look.”

Lena looked down. She should just turn and go, not bother with answering. But something compelled her. “My aunt. She’s….crazy. She-” A noise made Lena jump, but when she looked, nothing was there. Turning back, she was startled again when the girl grabbed her arm. 

“Well there’s no time to waste then.” She turned and ran, dragging a shocked Lena along behind her. Lena wanted to protest, or at least ask the girl what her plan was, but she had been running for so long that she was already out of breath. If it wasn’t for this girl’s hand around her wrist, hot in the cool rain, she wouldn’t be able to keep up. 

They dodged and weaved through the streets like they were knitting a pattern. She eventually lost track of where they started, but she guessed that it didn’t really matter anyway. The point was to be as far away could. They ran for what was probably only ten minutes, but to her burning lungs, it felt like two hours. When the girl mercifully stopped next to a park bench, Lena collapsed onto it, her enhanced physique dampened by a healthy lifestyle. How was this other girl so composed?

“That’ll probably do it.” She said, wringing out her clothes, despite there being no sign of the rain letting up. 

“Yeah.” Lena gasped. “I don’t even know if I can find myself.” 

The girl laughed, loud and expressive, and Lena felt a little pinch in her chest. “So, where are you going to hide from your aunt, mystery girl?”

“Oh, you know.” Lena shrugged. “Find some abandoned building somewhere to hole up in.”

“What, no other family?” The girl joined her on the bench, looking over to her curiously. 

“Not any I got told about.” Lena let a little of the bitterness leak through, too tired to hold it all back.

The girl looked at her for a long moment like she was contemplating something, before abruptly standing up. “I know a place you can hide for a bit.”

“You’ve already helped me enou-”

“Nope!” The girl grabbed her arm and yanked her back to her feet. Lena couldn’t but help flinching at the contact. Noticing it, the girl quickly pulled her hand back. “Sorry.”

“No, it’s ok. Just surprised me.”

“Ok.” She sounded dubious, but let it go. “Well anyway, come on, I’ll take you somewhere safe.”

“We don’t even know each other’s names.”

“Easy fix! I’m Webby. Webbigail technically, but only my Granny calls me that.” 

Lena was a little taken aback by how quickly this girl just gave her name away. But, there was no harm in doing the same right? 

“Lena. Nice to meet you Webby.”

* * *

Lena was very unsure as she was helped through a small hole in the wall around the property. The mansion they were approaching was HUGE. There were easily enough rooms for the two of them to have their pick of using one per day of the week, but places like this weren’t just abandoned. In fact, Lena was pretty sure she saw a few lit windows. 

“Hey Webby, not to be ungrateful for the help, but I don’t know if breaking into this place is a great idea.”

“What? No, we’re not breaking in.” Webby pulled a rope out of a hidden crevice in the wall. “Can you climb this?” 

“Uh, probably well enough.”

“Good.” She ascended so quickly Lena seemed to blink and she was halfway there. With nowhere else to go, Lena followed up at a much slower pace. Accepting the offered hand when she got to the windowsill, she looked around the room she was pulled into as a light switch was flicked.

Lena wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. It looked like a fusion between an office and a bedroom. Yes, there was a bed, and a closet with clothes in it, and a desk. But there were also papers _everywhere_. Folders stuffed with pages, filing cabinets stuffed with folders, and the room itself stuffed with filing cabinets. It was a matryoshka doll of disorganized data. 

Webby noticed her stunned look. “Haha! Yeah, sorry, I wasn’t really expecting guests.” She zipped around the room, pushing half-filled corkboards around the floor to clear space.

“This is your room?”

“Yeah!” 

“You live in this mansion?”

“With my Granny and her old coworker, Scrooge. He’s…very wealthy. As long as no one sees you, which isn’t that hard in a place this size, then no one will notice if I sneak a little extra food up here, and you can stay as long as you need!”

Lena stared at this girl, grinning brightly at her as if she had just provided the perfect answer to the whole world’s problems. Which she had, for Lena’s world at least.

“You met me less than an hour ago, on the streets, and you sneak me into YOUR room in one of the biggest mansions I’ve ever seen?” Lena paused for a moment. “You’re fucking with me, right?”

“Nope!” Webby’s grin didn’t drop. “We both know you’re not going to stuff your pockets and run because your aunt will find you. Not to mention Scrooge keeps meticulous count of all of his valuables, like gold and jewels, and he would definitely find you. Your best option is to lay low here for a while until your aunt gives up.” The cheery tone never changed, which was kind of unnerving, but Lena knew she had a point. 

“And you’re not gonna mug me?”

Webby made a show of looking around the room, then back to Lena with a single eyebrow raised. The contents of one dresser drawer were probably worth more than the measly amount in her wallet. 

“Alright, alright. Fair point.” Lena racked her brain, trying to come up with some reason to turn down this too-good-to-be-true offer. But none came. “Ok. I’ll stick around for a while.”

“Woohoo!” Webby cheered in a whisper. For the first time the whole night, Lena felt herself relax a little.

That was her big mistake.

She felt a tugging in her gut and had just enough time to realize what was about to happen and lunge for a part of the floor the bedside lamp illuminated before she fell into the shadow of the bed. 

She yanked herself back out quickly, praying to every deity she knew the name of that Webby had been facing away. But, no such luck. She was staring right at her, eyes wide. The next sentence she breathed out sent ice racing up Lena’s spine.

“You’re a Conduit.” 


	2. Roommate? Stowaway? Friend?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Webby and Lena handle their first night together.

Lena’s heart stopped. She eyed the window, wondering how far she could get before Webby made it to whoever owned the house. It had to be far, this place was huge…

“Wait wait!” Webby interrupted her train of thoughts. “It’s ok! I won’t turn you in!”

“....Really?” Lena was dubious. Conduits were feared across the country. Too powerful, not human. 

“Really.” Webby, carefully sat down at the desk chair, putting up her hands. Lena couldn’t see any deceit in her eyes, so she stepped around the bed, out of the shadow, and sat on the floor across from her. 

For a while, they didn’t say anything.

“So…” Webby broke the silence, but looked unsure how to say what she wanted to “...it’s just if you’re a Conduit, why not stand up to your Aunt?”

“Hiding in shadows isn’t exactly a great power to make a stand with,” Lena replied dryly. 

“Well, yeah ok.” Webby conceded “But Conduits, in general, are tougher, faster, and stronger. To handle their own powers.”

“Doesn’t really help if your Aunt is a Conduit too though.”

“Really?” Webby looked fascinated like she was watching a soap opera unfold before her eyes. 

“Same as me, but better at it,” Lena said self-depreciatingly. “There’s no way for me to stand up to her.”

“That sounds horrible.” Lena wasn’t sure if she could handle the sympathy in Webby’s eyes, so she turned away. 

“Yeah, well. I got sick of being her-” the word got caught in her throat “-experiment.” 

Webby heard the end of the conversation in the word, and even though she was dying to know more about the mystery girl, she didn’t push. Getting up from the desk chair, she walked over to the door. “I’m feeling kinda cold, gonna go make some hot chocolate. You want some?” 

“Uh, sure.”

* * *

A soft  _ clink  _ pulled Lena out of her thoughts. Webby had set a mug of hot chocolate on a small plate down on the nightstand she was sitting next to, before moving to her desk chair across the room with her own mug. 

For a moment they only stared at each other. 

“Thanks.” Lena broke the silence this time, surprising even herself. “I thought you might just come up here with your parents.”

“Ha!” It was that single laugh from before, but there was a bitter tinge to it this time. “Yeah, that’s not gonna happen.”

Lena could read between the lines. 

“Soooo…” Lena trailed off, not sure where to take the conversation next. 

“How long do you think you’ll need to stay?” Webby semi-interrupted her.

“I don’t know. My aunt, she…” Lena swallowed the nervous lump in her throat “she doesn’t let things go easily.”

“So, a while then.” 

“Yeah, if you don’t mind.” Webby shook her head, and Lena gave her a thankful smile. 

“But uh, how good are you at that...shadow...melting...thing?” Webby wasn’t sure what to call it. It was nothing like the things she knew about Conduits. 

“It’s easy to do. So easy, sometimes I do it by accident.” Lena looked ruefully over to the spot she had fallen into when she entered the room. 

“Good! That’s good. That makes this a lot easier. My Granny, she likes the house to be secure. You might have to do that to stay out of her sight.” Webby somehow managed to look proud and embarrassed. “She might check in my room for intruders-”

“Which I am.”

“-while I’m not here.” 

“So hide when someone comes in, hide-hide if it’s the Grandma. Got it.” Lena lifted the mug to take another sip, but with a start, she realized it was empty. How much had she been drinking? 

Webby spotted her put the mug back down. “Well, it’s getting kinda late. You had a pretty stressful day, we should probably go to bed.” Getting up, she gently took the mug out of Lena’s hands and set it on the desk. Over at her closet, she pulled out a sleeping bag and unrolled it. “Do you want the bed? I don’t mind using the sleeping bag.”

“No.” Lena took the bag from Webby (Webby let Lena take the bag from her). “A sleeping bag is better than the streets I thought I was going to be on.” A peal of thunder sounded from the still-gloomy weather outside, emphasizing her point. “I’ll take the bag.” Lena found a clear space among the papers on the floor (with some difficulty) and unrolled it purposefully. 

Webby shrugged, not going to argue with her new...roommate? Stowaway?  _ Friend? _ “Do you have pajamas?”

“...no.” 

“I think I have something that’ll work.” Digging through her closet, she pulled out a shirt and pair of lounge pants that were way too big for her but would fit Lena well. “Granny shops assuming I’ll hit a growth spurt any day now.”

“Right.” Lena took the bundle and smiled at Webby again. Webby beamed back at her, and Lena had to look away it was so bright. The clothes had a flower pattern she normally wouldn’t have worn in a hundred years. Keyword “normally”. After a quick change in the bathroom, the pair were laying down, ready to sleep. 

Webby went to turn off the bedside lamp, but froze halfway there. She turned a quizzical look to Lena. Lena nodded back to her. Webby finished the motion, and the room was overtaken by the dark. The pair laid in silence for a while, listening to the rain pattering against the window. Eventually, they slept. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is difficult to work out for me. I don't know why. I have the last chapter and the climax planned out. Everything else is unsure, so updates might come slow is what I'm getting around to the long way here.


End file.
